I sit down with Mike Shea, Topher Kohan, Joe Lastowski, Christopher Dudley, and Liz Theis to talk about our recent Tiamat Takedown live event which Mike DMed and the rest of the us built level 20 fifth edition character to take on the Queen of Chromatics. We faired… poorly. Hear us discuss high level combat in the new edition of D&D. This podcast was recorded on December 14, 2014.

On Tuesday, December 2, 2014, a few Round Tablers got together for the second time to find out just what high level play was like in the new fifth edition of Dungeons and Dragons. So Mike Shea crafted a grueling combat experience for Chris Dudley, Joe Lastwoski, Liz Theis, Topher Kohan, and me to throw down with the toughest 5th edition monster known to us – Tiamat! If you missed the livestream, check out the videos below! Wrap-up Round Table podcast to follow.

If you like what you’re reading, please check out my podcasts on The Tome Show, follow me on Twitter, tell your friends and share this blog post, and/or leave me a comment and let me know you think. Thanks!

The 5e review gang joins Jeff Greiner and Tracy Hurley again this episode. This time we take on the second half of the Tyranny of Dragons story-line: The Rise of Tiamat. This is the continuation of the story that began in the Hoard of the Dragon Queen – how does the story end? Listen as Mike Shea, Sam Dillon, and I discuss the adventure with Jeff and Tracy. The discussion is followed by an interview with Steve Winter, the lead designer of the campaign.

It’s Thanksgiving here in the US so I’m going to give you a quick update today and what you should expect to see on this blog on Tuesday next week! But first, I want to remind you that in addition to a lovely blog post from yours truly on Tuesday December 2nd, remember that’s also the date of the Tiamat Takedown! Be sure to check it out at 8:30PM Eastern! Expect a few NPC previews to show up too…

Speaking of which if you voted for the class and race of Topher Kohan‘s NPC, thank you so much! Voting has closed now. Topher will be playing a dwarf ranger, which brings our dwarf total to 3 in the party.

Now onto the goods. Continuing the catastrophic dragon conversion to 5e (we’ve already seen the blizzard, earthquake, and volcanic). Tuesday will see the release of the typhoon dragons in all their glory, but for now, here’s an ancient taste of their statistics.

Ancient Typhoon Dragon

Gargantuan dragon, chaotic evil

Armor Class 21 (natural armor)

Hit Points 385 (22d20 + 154)

Speed 40 ft., fly 80 ft., swim 40ft.

STR

DEX

CON

INT

WIS

CHA

27 (+8)

12 (+1)

25 (+7)

20 (+5)

19 (+4)

17 (+3)

Saving Throws Dex +8, Con +14, Wis +11, Cha +10

Damage Immunities lightning, thunder

Skills Intimidation +10,Perception +11

Senses blindsight 60 ft., darkvision 120 ft., passive perception 21

Languages Common, Draconic

Challenge 22 (30,000 XP)

Amphibious. The typhoon dragon can breathe air and water.

Catastrophic Aura. A 5-foot aura of raging winds and rain surrounds the typhoon dragon. Area within the aura is treated as difficult terrain and creatures within the aura cannot use their action to disengage.

Legendary Resistance (3/Day). If the typhoon dragon fails a saving throw, it can choose to succeed instead.

Actions

Multiattack.The typhoon dragon can use its Growing Aura and then make three attacks: one with its bite and two with its claws.

Cyclone’s Pull. The typhoon dragon creates a raging storm in a 25-foot cube originating from the dragon. Each creature within the cube must make a DC 22 Constitution saving throw. Creatures who fail take 22 (5d8) thunder damage and be pulled 20 feet towards the typhoon dragon, creatures who succeed take half damage and are not pulled.

Growing Aura. The typhoon dragon’s Catastrophic Aura expands its radius 10 feet. If the dragon uses this ability when its Catastrophic Aura is 25 feet, the dragon’s aura explodes with energy and all creatures within 90 feet of the dragon must make a DC 22 Constitution saving throw. Creatures who fail take 33 (6d10) lightning and 27 (6d8) thunder damage and are moved 20 feet in a direction of the dragon’s choice, creatures who succeed take half damage and are not moved. Once the dragon’s aura explodes with energy it resets to 5 feet.

Legendary Actions

The typhoon dragon can take 3 legendary actions, choosing from the options below. Only one legendary action option can be used at a time and only at the end of another creature’s turn. The typhoon dragon regains all spent legendary actions at the start of its turn.

Tail Attack. The typhoon dragon makes a tail attack.

Sudden Thunder. Each creature in the typhoon dragon’s Catastrophic Aura must succeed on a DC 22 Constitution saving throw. Creatures who fail take 18 (4d8) thunder damage and the dragon has advantage on attacks against those creatures until the end of the its next turn, creatures who succeed take half damage and the dragon does not have advantage on attacks against them.

Hey, everyone! So Topher Kohan, all-around great dude and member of the party we’ve put together to take-on Tiamat in the December 2nd Tiamat Takedown, wants some help building his PC! Use the polls below to help Topher determine his race and class!

Voting ends Thanksgiving Day midnight Eastern time so place your picks now!

We’ll be living streaming the game on Google+ Hangout and on YouTube on December 2nd at 8:30PM Eastern. I’ll be posting characters here and we’ll release an edited version of the audio as a podcast on thetomeshow.com and have a follow-up conversation as part ofThe Round Table podcast I host.

If you like what you’re reading, please check out my podcasts on The Tome Show, follow me on Twitter, tell your friends, share this blog post, and/or leave me a comment and let me know you think. Thanks!

It’s all going down at 8:30PM Eastern on Tuesday, December 2nd. Please pass the Google+ and Facebook events around and invite people. Also, if you use social media to talk about this, please use #TiamatTakedown. Hell yeah!

It’s on like Donkey Kong!

If you like what you’re reading, please check out my podcasts on The Tome Show, follow me on Twitter, tell your friends, share this blog post, and/or leave me a comment and let me know you think. Thanks!